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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28136241">the reasons beneath</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/viridianeye/pseuds/viridianeye'>viridianeye</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Naruto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dark, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Empath Sakura, Explicit eventually, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Smut, Infinite Tsukuyomi, Madasaku - Freeform, POV Madara Third Person, POV Sakura Third Person, POV Third Person, Slow Burn, Work In Progress, partially inspired by fanart</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 15:06:54</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>9,152</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28136241</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/viridianeye/pseuds/viridianeye</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Sakura is unable to simply watch Madara die, and makes the last-minute decision to save his life.  </p><p>She is thrown into the madness that ensues, and the fate of everyone's lives rests upon her ability to change Madara's mind about the Tsukuyomi after they are the last two left undreaming.</p><p>Canon divergence from the end of the Fourth Shinobi War after Hagaromo and the other reanimated Kage summon Naruto/Sasuke/Kakashi/Sakura back after they defeat Kaguya, into the clearing with dying Madara and the tailed beasts.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Haruno Sakura &amp; Uchiha Madara, Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Madara</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>101</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. savioress</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sakura’s eyes flicked continually to the man lying splayed on the rocky ground, almost unrecognizable to her now that his hair had reverted from wild teal-tinged white to black, the Six Paths powers gone.  He was dying.  She could sense the bleeding of his chakra from his extensively damaged body, his life dwindling away from the ten-tails being ripped forcefully from him, and she knew that the pain must be immense.</p><p><em>Good,</em> Sakura thought, <em>he deserves it for all he’s done.</em>  She turned her face away with a grimace.</p><p>She tried to be disinterested in the dying man, keeping her eyes forward as she and Kakashi watched Naruto speak with Minato one last time before his spirit departed with the other reanimated Kage.  But Madara’s broken figure on the ground seemed to poke through Sakura’s peripheral vision, and each time she told herself to ignore that he was dying, she felt worse about standing by and watching while his life drained away.  Regardless of who he was and what he had done, it twisted sharply against her instincts to do nothing while he suffered.</p><p>Sakura’s eyes grew both distant and focused then as she looked at him fully, unconsciously biting on her lip.  Even from here, she could see his face wincing with pain, which for such a battlescarred and hardy shinobi was an indication of the excruciation he was going through.  She knew the type - they could be at the brink of death with every nerve ending screaming in pain and never make a sound or intentionally indicate their pain - and it only reminded her that she still had chakra, still could do something, even if her mind tripped over how backwards an idea it was to save an enemy’s life.  Doubt stirred in her gut as she wondered if she could even save him if she tried.</p><p>Madara’s distant features twitched again, and Sakura could faintly hear his ragged breathing.  This image of him, the battered and beaten man lying on the rocks - it was miles away from how she had seen him not long before.  She didn’t see him as the Madara with the white shock of hair, lithe form rising in the red glow of the moon as he cast the world under his powerful genjutsu.  She now saw him through her empathic medic’s eyes as a suffering fellow shinobi.</p><p><em>If I save him, then what?</em>  The question poked through Sakura’s thoughts as the turmoil within her began to lean toward her final decision, and she dismissed it as she watched Madara speak hoarsely a final time with the First Hokage Hashirama.  Sakura wasn’t sure, but she had the passing thought that he had a lot to answer for in life still before he departed again, and her thoughts were dispersed as she winced again at the sight of his broken body.</p><p>Sakura clenched her fists as the thought crossed her mind, deep and set.  <em>Enemy or comrade, I can’t just watch him die.</em></p><p> </p><p>All eyes were on Sakura as she limped across the clearing, her verdant eyes vibrant with her determination.  Her boots scuffed the rocky plateau; she heard but did not register Kakashi hissing her name in confusion behind her.  She settled on her knees beside where Madara lay, his obsidian hair splayed across the rocky surface of the ground, exhaustion in his half-peaceful face.</p><p>Sakura lifted her slightly trembling hands above his chest, hesitating for a moment.  Her skin rashed in goosebumps at her second time being in close proximity to Madara, and this time without his staff piercing her through her core -- this time, with her intentions not to harm.</p><p>Blinking down at Madara’s body, Sakura's healer’s mindset took over, her apprehension giving way to a fierce and analytical determination.  Sakura pressed her hands against his stomach, the shimmering glow of her healing chakra beginning to push through his body as she examined his internal damages.</p><p>His dark brows over his closed eyes twitched slightly at her touch.  All who surrounded Madara and Sakura stared as she bent her head over him with her hands pressed gently against his abdomen, her healing energy flowing and mending with a luminescent glow.  Above them, the spirits of the departing reincarnated Hokage and the many tailed beasts surrounding the plateau looked on with curiosity.  Hagaromo paused in speaking to Naruto alongside Kakashi and Sasuke as they all stared with open astonishment and confusion.</p><p>Madara’s voice was a tired murmur, cracked at the edges.  “What… are you doing?”</p><p>“Saving your life,” Sakura responded flatly, and his chin tilted slightly toward her as he kept his eyes closed.  She focused harder, fighting against the pull of death at his life force beneath her fingers.  Madara was being torn apart from the sudden loss of the ten-tails from his body as well as the other hells he had been through in the events they had just endured, and it amazed her that he was still alive and in one piece.  Every single one of his bones was broken, and she winced in empathetic pain as she both fought the drain upon his life and mended his skeleton.  She wasted no time in using more of her reserves, allowing her healing chakra to ribbon out from her forehead and curl around both of their bodies as she activated her Strength of a Hundred technique.</p><p>“Why?”</p><p>She felt Madara’s question echoed in the minds of the many who watched her now, and Sakura chose to ignore the pressure of their stares upon her.  She continued to concentrate, her energy the only barrier between his life’s energy within his slowly mending body and the encroaching dark of death.  His body responded to her chakra slowly, weakly, and she remembered as her green eyes traced the odd pale face on his upper right pectoral that he had Hashirama’s cells implanted within him.  Sakura’s worries intensified as she frowned at the etched face, nearly forgetting that Madara had spoken to her again as she focused.  <em>If his rapid-regeneration abilities are struggling even with my added chakra...</em></p><p>“I don’t need a reason,” Sakura answered quietly as she curled her energy deeper through his body.  She exhausted more of her chakra as she surged with the familiar rage against death, her determination to beat it back and save the life beneath her hands thundering anew.    She flooded another wave of her cooling green energy through him in response to the continued deadly drain that hissed in his blood, and she felt his body slowly relaxing beneath her - a bad sign.  Sakura opened her eyes and looked at Madara’s face, and her pupils widened when she met his open stare.  Two Rinnegan eyes searched her face, a frown on his lips and the hints of pain tightening the corners of his features as he questioned her silently.  Sakura wasn’t afraid of those powerful eyes now; her heart still pounded with adrenaline at being so close to someone who had tried to kill her, but she chose to trust that he had no interest in harming her now.</p><p>She held his piercing gaze as she sent another pulse of her energy through his body, and she smiled slightly as she felt the massive pull of darkness begin to slowly recede.  She was winning the battle of his body against death, and she felt him tense again beneath her hands.  Madara tipped his head back against the rocks as his heart and his lungs and organs began to fight again, to resist death and live, and he arched slightly with a sharp intake of breath as his blood raced and pulsed.  Sakura maintained her intense focus, returning her gaze to her hands on his abdomen as she felt the impossibly intense thrill of successfully saving a life as he breathed beneath her.</p><p>This time, when he slowly relaxed beneath her, she felt relief make her own shoulders slump.  Sakura didn’t realize how exhausted she was herself until she slumped all the way forward, her face pressing into his warm stomach and her mussed pink locks scattering across his skin.  She was too fatigued to shift herself away and she felt unconsciousness pulling at her mind; in her struggles against her weariness, she only managed to turn her face to the side. </p><p>Sakura met Madara’s wide Rinnegan eyes on her where she lay across him.  Her ear was tipped against his chest where she rested and she could hear his heart beating steadily, could feel it under his warm skin, and she closed her eyes as she slipped away into unconsciousness.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Why?</em>
</p><p>Madara continued to stare at the medic who had expended herself in her effort to save his life.  He had been very close to death for yet another time and he had just made his peace with Hashirama; he had been about to depart this world permanently until he felt her firm hands press into his core and begin to fill him with cooling, clinging energy.  Now she was passed out across him, her face peaceful where her head rested against his stomach.  The ribbons that had extended in dark painted lines from the diamond on her forehead retreated from their bodies, slipping away from Madara first and reversing into her skin with a faint glow as the powerful healing jutsu faded.</p><p>The girl had undoubtedly succeeded in her goal: Madara’s body thrummed with life once more, saved from the very brink of death, and his skin tingled with the healing she had given him in place of the immense pain he had been experiencing before.  He could feel how thorough she had been as his blood surged, his muscles and bones stinging with the fresh mending.  </p><p>She had managed to help save the other jinchuriki Naruto from the usually fatal tearing of his tailed-beast from his body; now she had saved Madara from the same would-be fatal fate, and all in the same stretch of a day or so.  He had no doubt in his mind that she must be one of - if not the - most powerful medic that lived in order to achieve such a dual feat.  To save a jinchuriki from their tailed beast being extracted was unheard of, and his guess as to why she had been successful was the combination of his implanted Hashirama regeneration cells working with her waves of healing and shared life force.</p><p>Madara had been given an unexpected new chance at life now, but he had no idea where to begin.  A deeper part of him wondered if it started with this strange medic that had saved his life regardless of the fact that, at least until now, he had been her enemy.</p><p>When he heard the last trickle of Hashirama’s voice above him, floating away, Madara jerked his attention back upward.  He saw his friend give him a knowing smile as he finished trickling off into the sky.  “It seems you still have reasons to live, Madara.”</p><p>Then the sky was clear, the Tsukuyomi moon a little brighter as the spirits returned to their long-awaited eternal rest.  Part of Madara ached to rejoin his family and comrades there -- but the ache was disrupted by the warmth of the girl slumped across his body.  He sat up on his elbows, lifting a tentative hand, and heard a sharp voice sound as his gloved fingers were about to descend upon her shoulder.</p><p>“Don’t touch her.”  Madara glanced up and saw the young Uchiha brat Sasuke approaching, raven hair drifting in the breeze.  He distinctly remembered stabbing him through the heart not too long ago and was mildly annoyed and a sliver relieved that he hadn’t died.  Madara did not take any pleasure in killing a fellow clansman - hence why he had warned him off and spared him at first - but he had persisted and forced his hand.  Now Sasuke stood above him, hand on his sword as his silent threat as Madara hovered his palm above the medic-woman’s shoulder.  The boy repeated his warning.  “Do not touch her.”</p><p>Annoyance flared within Madara.  Sasuke’s ostentatious repeated commands inspired him to further piss him off; Madara shifted forward, scooping up the medic-girl in a single motion and cradling her in his arms.  He smirked up at Sasuke as the girl’s face lolled into the crook of his shoulder in her unconscious sleep.</p><p>Madara easily dodged the sword strike that slashed toward him, darting fluidly aside with the girl secured against his chest as he got to his feet.  Madara stood with a bored expression just out of Sasuke’s range as his midnight mane drifted in the breeze.  “You were unable to defeat me before, brat.  And now…” Madara tested his muscles, felt his body.  His chakra was low, but thanks to the medic’s healing, he felt even better than he had when he’d first been fully brought back to life from the Rinne Rebirth.  His rapid-regeneration cells were doing their work as well now that death no longer bit at his heels; his body was fully mended as they finished her already-thorough healing.  </p><p>Madara wondered if the girl knew what she had done as he gave Sasuke a dangerous smile, his gloved fingers tapping gently against the girl’s knees and upper back where he supported her weight in his grip.  “Now you <em>certainly</em> won’t.”</p><p>Sasuke glowered at him with the pure hatred only an Uchiha could express, and Madara kept his eyes trained on him as Naruto approached, his coat flaring around him.  “What are you doing with her!”  The yell was more an accusation than a question, and Madara adjusted his easy grip on the medic with a raised brow.  The words sunk in his head as he asked himself the same question.  He was not entirely sure what he wanted to do with her or himself.  He was alive and well, and though he was no longer imbued with the godlike power of the Six Paths and the Ten Tails that he had before, he was still much stronger than either of the brats that stood before him.  Madara’s powerful Rinnegan eyes analysed and memorized their conditions instantaneously - he could see that they also had lost their extra abilities given to them by Hagaromo after defeating Kaguya, and were both low on chakra.  His chances at winning a battle against them were good.</p><p>However, Madara didn’t want to fight.  He had lost interest for now; he was tired of it, tired of the death and pain and bloodshed, and he didn’t want to risk wasting what the oddly brave girl in his grip had fought to save.</p><p>Madara glanced down at her in his arms.  She was the only thing that interested him at the moment.  She’d caught his attention as well as his life when she had made the sacrifice of her energy and temporarily her consciousness to revive him.  His eyes traced along her slender, battered figure with the practiced eye of a shinobi, taking her in and analysing her in a single fleeting moment with more interest than he’d had when he had first seen her in his Six Paths form.  </p><p>He deduced that she was unhurt beyond the acid burns on her exposed arm where her sleeve was torn off; her chakra was very low, but not to a lethal level, and she should awaken within a relatively brief time period.  Behind Madara’s shinobi gaze was that of a man’s, who noticed her modest but still lovely curves, her slightly floral and earthy scent and fair features beneath her wind-whipped and blush-coloured hair - attractive, more a young woman than a girl.  The dirt and bruises she had from battle did nothing to diminish her beauty.</p><p>Adjusting his firm grip on her, Madara blinked imperiously at Naruto and Sasuke, his decision made.  “Your teammate saved my life.  I intend to repay that debt.”</p><p>They watched him with narrowed eyes.  He didn’t like the look the younger Uchiha had, an expression of not only hatred but - was that jealousy?  Madara’s gloved hands tightened on the young woman.  His competitive nature had risen and taken hold within him.  He had even less intention to relinquish her now as his possessive tendencies sparked at the barely-hidden jealousy in Sasuke’s eyes.</p><p>“That’s right, she did!” The jinchuriki was speaking again, and Madara rested bored eyes upon him as he went on passionately.  “So you should let her go as your way to settle that ‘debt’, and then we’ll deal with you.  That, and there’s still the Tsukuyomi.”<br/>
With a slight twist about his mouth, Madara remembered with a flood all that had happened, and felt a sourness roil within from Black Zetsu’s betrayal.  He would deal with the overwhelming oceans of his bitterness later; for now, he had other things to handle.  He glanced down at the medic-woman again.  She was soundly asleep, breathing peacefully into his chest; her face pressed softly against his skin.  Madara smirked at the sight.  </p><p>Her given answers for saving his life earlier were not enough, and he burned with the question of why she had crossed the lines between sides to save his life.  Madara could not surmise any benefit to her in keeping him from death; he could not imagine how it would help her or her comrades to have him alive - in fact, he knew that he could turn around this war in his favor with his newly mended condition.  He could, and would, make his Tsukuyomi a completed success - after getting his answers from this woman, as well as dealing with the remaining members of her team.</p><p>Madara adjusted his grip on the medic-woman as he decided where he would be going; without another word, he blurred into the air as he leapt out of the clearing, pressing the her against his chest as he went, the surprised yells in the clearing behind him fading into the distance as he disappeared.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Madara flitted over the landscape with an agile grace, his form a black streak against the bright reddish sky.  He landed lightly atop one of the massive branches of the God Tree that stretched and scarred across the world, and he felt a surge of pride as he stood tall and looked out upon the completed vision of his lifelong goal.  The large cocoons stretched off by the thousands into the horizon; Madara basked in the crimson moonlight as he stared down upon the vast network of branches, seeing them as the visual culmination of true world peace.  Never had he felt so proud, and he smiled slightly as he looked out at the world that had fully surrendered to his long-awaited dream.</p>
<p><em>Finally,</em> he was thinking as he watched the cocoons around him sway in the gentle wind, <em>the end of all wars.  The end of needless bloodshed.</em></p>
<p>Madara’s oldest reason for pursuing this fate rippled in his mind, an echo of the last dying breath to deeply affect him sighing through the dark of his subconscious.  <em>Izuna.  I wish you could see this now.</em>  He reached up and held a hand over his eye before it fell back down to rest lightly on the woman he carried.</p>
<p>She stirred, and Madara’s attention withdrew to her.  She took in a slow breath, her brows creasing and her lips tightening in her sleep.  He narrowed his eyes; he knew by the twitching of her features that she would soon awaken.</p>
<p>Madara glanced backward.  He could sense that the woman’s teammates were in pursuit; he had already sent several shadow clones their way to trick them, though he knew it wouldn’t hold them off long.  Disabling or otherwise finishing off that team had to be his first priority after securing her for later questioning.  His pseudo-metallic Rinnegan eyes took in the landscape in a single blink; deciding upon the flat, severed stump of the God Tree’s main trunk, he leapt again into the sky, leaving behind three more shadow clones to further throw off her pursuing team members and buy him more time.</p>
<p>Madara settled upon the enormous flat plateau of the trunk and rested the woman down upon the slightly rough surface as he glanced around.  The stump was nearly as vast as Konohagakure, stretching out in all directions; it was a dark mauve under the light of the Tsukuyomi moon.  </p>
<p>Madara grimaced at the memory of the terrible whisper in his head telling him to absorb the God Tree as he surveyed its severed remains.  He was swift in putting the thoughts of Black Zetsu and the disastrous turn of events leading to his-near death from his mind; he knew he did not have much time to ruminate while his shadow clones did their work in keeping the medic’s team at bay.</p>
<p>He lifted a gloved hand to his mouth as he thought, tapping his fingers against his lips.  There were many ways he could restrain this medic and get his answers; however, most of the usual methods were out of the question, as he had no desire to hurt or kill the person who had saved his life - at least not until he had a good reason to.</p>
<p>Madara’s hand fell from his face to his chest as he remembered the pale face etched into his upper left pectoral, Hashirama’s abilities latent and powerful within his blood.  He bent to the ground beside where the woman lay, pressing his hands against the wood of the vast stump, using a fraction of his focus; he watched as brittle branches wound up and curled around her, securing her against the ground.  Madara prodded a branch experimentally.  It held strong against his gloved finger; when she awoke and inevitably fought her bindings, she would be hard-pressed to make even a crack in the wood-style restraints.</p>
<p>Satisfied, Madara left one more shadow clone behind to keep the Tsukuyomi at bay while he left to deal with her teammates.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Madara watched with grim satisfaction as he watched the final white wisps of the tree’s weblike tendrils wrap around its three new cocoons.</p>
<p>His left arm and right leg steamed and hissed where they were regenerating; he was bleeding from one eye, and his breaths were slowing into steady exhales as he recovered.  He had expended a lot more chakra than he had expected to.  He’d had to put in more effort with these already exhausted three than with the five Kage.  He had been an Edo Tensei reincarnation then, not in his fully alive and much stronger body, and he gave a short admiring blink at the slowly swaying cocoons.</p>
<p>Considering that none of them were at their best -- all three of them exhausted, battle-worn and already energy-depleted - Madara was surprised at the fight they had put up against him.  </p>
<p>He had known from the start that actually killing Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi was not necessary for getting them out of his way.  His single goal had been to disable that Rinnegan eye that Sasuke possessed - it was the only reason that the light of the Infinite Tsukuyomi had been unable to put the three into their respective dreams.  </p>
<p>Using the bluff of declaring that he would kill them at last, Madara had hidden his true goal during their fight.  He had managed to overwhelm the trio with a thundering mess of Susanoo-clad shadow clones at the end of their fight, using a quick dive into time-space Kamui to appear directly in front of Sasuke and jab his fingers into his Rinnegan.</p>
<p>It was over then.  They barely had time to recognize what Madara had done before the light of the Infinite Tsukuyomi shone down and stilled them, their respective eyes opening wide as the dream swept through.  Madara had stepped back and watched as the tree recognized its new prey; white webbing shot out and ensnared Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi, pulling them upwards and winding them into tight cocoons.  There were tears in Naruto’s eyes as he’d been swept into the dream, a name on his lips as it took over his mind -- <em>Sakura.</em></p>
<p>Madara knew that he had been almost unsuccessful.  If he had been fighting them simply to defeat them fully, he’d have more likely died or at least been forced to retreat.  He had not come out unscathed from this fight; he would die from his injuries if he did not have his rapid-regeneration abilities.</p>
<p>He wiped his bloody fingers against his pantleg with a grimace.  It still felt wrong to fight a clansman, especially considering he was the last Uchiha left beside himself, but it had to be done.  He’d damaged the boy’s Rinnegan eye enough to disable him from protecting the others from the Infinite Tsukuyomi, but not enough to destroy it completely.</p>
<p>Madara bent, touching the branch that he stood on and closing his eyes as he sensed the living undercurrents of energy beneath its surface.  Now completely unhindered, he put Black Zetsu’s words from his mind as he investigated the God Tree’s true nature.</p>
<p>His fingers tensed against the branch’s hard surface and his teeth clenched as he almost drew back from what he discovered.  Madara’s fingertips seared painfully through the gloves like he was touching a stove: the enormous God Tree branch was surging with a river of chakra, impossible amounts of it, pulled from its thousands upon thousands of cocoons.  As he felt the surge starting to pull greedily at his own chakra, Madara pulled back, absorbing and processing the information he’d gleaned from his look into the tree.</p>
<p>It was true that the Infinite Tsukuyomi was making good of its intended effect to cause the ideal-life dream upon its dreamers.  He knew this without a doubt now; Madara let out a breath he wasn’t aware he was holding.  In that brief moment where his chakra had immersed with the river of energy within the branch, he had seen pieces of the countless dreams, shattered images and stutters of sound, the hints of their happy lives dreamed in ignorant bliss.</p>
<p>However, it was true that the God Tree was sucking the chakra from its dreamers.  The rate in which it was taking that energy was relatively slow, but steady.  Quick mathematics in the back of Madara’s mind told him that many would die from total depletion within a rough estimate or two or three years at the current chakra drain rate, with lower chakra pool dreamers succumbing sooner than larger-pool dreamers.</p>
<p>Getting to his feet, Madara looked toward the red Tsukuyomi moon.  His dark eyes followed the lines of it, its shape, remembering when he had ascended in the sky to first awaken the Rinne-Sharingan in his forehead.  He lifted a gloved hand and felt where it had been, remembering again the feeling of being the Ten-Tails jinchuriki and Six Paths wielder, the thundering exhilaration of absolute power he’d had.  </p>
<p>No, he had no regrets, Madara decided.  The world was at peace, and it would remain that way.</p>
<p>He strode along the smooth curve of a branch, his sharp eyes moving along the gently swaying, vaguely human-shaped cocoons.  He hated that a conflict had begun deep in the back of his mind regardless of his resolve: he only wanted to feel pride, not doubt, but it was not something he could tear from himself now.</p>
<p><em>Sakura,</em> Madara remembered then as his eyes fell toward the horizon where he’d left her on the vast stump.  The name Naruto had whispered was undoubtedly hers.  Madara remembered her namesake cherry-blossom hair; a flicker of her fierce green eyes crossed his mind’s eye.  She was the last remaining mind undreaming, and the last thing he had left to deal with before he began his watch over the dreaming world.</p>
<p>Restlessness itched under Madara’s skin as he stepped toward Sakura’s direction, his mindset changing over as he shifted his intense focus to her.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Verdant green eyes cracked open beneath the crimson moon.  Bleeding red light illuminated Sakura’s pale face as she blinked slowly awake.</p>
<p>She turned her head to the side as she sensed a presence near her; she watched with fleeting confusion as there were two Madaras that met her groggy gaze.  One was backing up and stopping a small distance away, Rinnegan eyes glinting; the other was settling to sit just out of reach of her, his obsidian eyes sharp and intense upon Sakura beneath his midnight mane of hair.  </p>
<p>In the exhausted swirl of her waking mind, she saw Madara for how very <em>Uchiha</em> he looked, his unruly black hair falling around his elegant features and his stare sharp enough to cut through anything.  He reminded her of a wild, older version of Sasuke - something Sakura was quick to shed from her mind.</p>
<p>Though she knew they would hold fast, she tested her bindings anyway.  Ignoring Madara’s stare as well as the ache in her exhausted and chakra-depleted body, she strained her muscles, arching her head back against the rough ground and clenching her teeth as she fought against the tight wood-style restraints.  Her knees and arms strained; her back pushed upwards; her muscles screamed as she pushed against them and fought, her frustration and ferocity kicking up her strength.  </p>
<p>When Sakura’s thrashing caused the branches to creak in protest, Madara raised a single slender brow.  “I will release those if you agree to speak with me civilly.”</p>
<p>Shifting her frustrated attention back to Madara, Sakura’s gaze touched upon the blood that trickled down from his visible eye.  A few strands of his black hair had caught in it as it dried.  As her gaze widened upon it, he lifted a gloved hand and wiped away the red tear, leaving a mauve smudge along his cheek.</p>
<p>She also noticed the new scuffs and healing scars along his jaw and down his upper body as her gaze lowered.  Now that she was fully awake, her memory served her well, and a weighted dread tore down her gut as she realized those were fresh marks -- they had not been there when she had been healing him earlier.  There was a slight hiss of steam rising from the new seam on his shoulder as her eyes travelled back upward; when she returned her horrified gaze to Madara’s face, she noticed the slight weariness about his features.  His new scars, the steam from his recent regeneration from what had been undoubtedly large injuries, the blood from the overuse of his eye - it clicked in her head, and Sakura held perfectly still as the terrible realization hit her hard.</p>
<p>“Did you kill them?” she managed, her throat tight as she lifted her head and stared intently at Madara.  At her creased brows and increasingly pale face, he rested his head on his hand and watched her impassively as he gave her a verbal confirmation.  “No.”</p>
<p>Sakura’s blood pulsed in her rising panic and shock as she tried to read his indecipherable dark eye, unsure if he was lying or not.  She was remembering the events that had led up to her unconsciousness now; colorful flickers of memory played across the backdrop of her thoughts.   Her empathy-wrought heart aching with her moral conflict in watching his excruciation from across the clearing -- her decision, made without further deliberation.  Her hands pressing into his midsection as she forced her cooling chakra into his body, and the adrenaline-spiked thrill of successfully saving his life.  She closed her eyes with shame and her cheeks stung as she remembered her exhaustion, blacking out against him.</p>
<p>With the memories came her realization that he must have carried her here afterward - wherever here was.  Sakura’s fingers curled against the rough wooden ground hard enough to push slivers beneath her nails.  Her team must have fought him, trying to recover her, and had apparently failed, though they had damaged Madara enough to force him to overuse his Rinnegan eyes.  </p>
<p><em>Bastard,</em> Sakura thought, fighting back her oncoming tears as she pressed her head back against the ground with bitter anger.  <em>What does he want with me?  Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi… where are you now?</em></p>
<p>She knew that they had to be either dead or trapped in the Infinite Tsukuyomi at this point.  If Madara was being truthful that they were still alive, then there was nowhere else they could be; she guessed that he must have injured Sasuke, disabling his Rinnegan and thus enabling the worldwide genjutsu to take them.  </p>
<p>She clenched her teeth hard as she fought her rising fury and harrowing grief.  <em>This is all your fault,</em> came the puncturing thought, and she couldn’t stop the tears anymore.</p>
<p>She let out a shaky breath as guilt sucked in through her aching heart and poisoned her mind.  <em>I saved Madara, and now he’s ended the war in his favor.</em></p>
<p>Sakura’s fingers stung sharply from where she dug them into the wooden surface she was bound against, and she clenched them into fists, blinking away her streaming tears as she opened her eyes again to the world.  The red moon above her was a blurred image that burned like a watchful eye in the unnaturally bright sky.  </p>
<p><em>Breathe,</em> she thought, <em>focus.</em></p>
<p>She could not allow herself to be overwhelmed with her hatred, rage, and despair; not now, when her life was on the line and she was vulnerable in front of her worst enemy.  She had dealt with terrible situations before, and though this had become the worst of them all, she knew she had to deal with this practically if she wanted to have any sort of hope to save her team’s lives.</p>
<p>Turning her head once more to face Madara, Sakura forced herself to calm, keeping her expression carefully neutral as she considered his offer again.  Biting back the curses she wanted to spew, she instead held them in and spoke evenly.  “Why should I trust anything you say?”</p>
<p>Madara leaned back where he sat casually on the ground near her, his gloved hand resting idly upon his knee; his piercing dark eye watched her from the sliver of his face that she could see beneath his shaggy black mane.  “I’ve no reason to lie to you at the moment.  If you’re asking why you should trust me… I suggest that you look around and remind yourself that I am the only reason you’re not dreaming with everyone else right now.”</p>
<p>Though she kept her glare focused upon Madara to spite his suggestion, Sakura noticed his shadow clone again through her peripheral vision.  He stood a stone’s throw from her, his metallic Rinnegan eyes unblinking as he looked on.  </p>
<p>Madara was reminding Sakura of just how little control she had here.  His watchful clone with those powerful eyes active was continually keeping her from the Infinite Tsukuyomi.  Should he decide that he no longer wanted her around, he could easily dismiss it, and she would be gone just like her team and everyone else she knew.  </p>
<p>This reminder of her powerlessness only angered Sakura more, and her attempted calm facade broke at the edges as she spat her words at him.  “That’s hardly a reason to trust you.  You already did kami-knows-what to my friends, and you expect me to sit and chat civilly with you?  Bastard.”</p>
<p>He ignored the insult, tapping his gloved fingers along his kneecap with a sigh.  “We are going to talk either way.  However, you can certainly remain where you are if that’s what you want.”  Madara’s smirk only made Sakura angrier, and this time when she thrashed against the restraining branches around her, there was an audible crack from her efforts.</p>
<p>Madara reached up and pushed the hair from his face, his smirk becoming an irate frown.  Sakura continued to fight, determined to break loose and unleash her fury upon him.  “If the reassurance is any consolation,” he added as he observed her struggle, “your teammates are living their ideal dreams alongside everyone else as we speak.”</p>
<p>Sakura paused to give Madara another incensed glower, biting back a curse.</p>
<p>His earlier offer to let her loose from the branches echoed back through her thoughts.  She did want to be able to sit up, to run healing through her aching muscles and to adjust her sore body, but she didn’t trust that as soon as he released the bonds that he wouldn’t try something else.  She knew she could break these bonds on her own should she keep fighting.  However, if Madara was willing to simply release them instead, it would allow Sakura to reserve what chakra she had at the moment for more crucial uses.  Being freed would also allow her more options at hand to deal with him, and could only benefit her; Sakura let out a huff as she decided it was worth the risk.  “Just… release these bonds already.”</p>
<p>    Madara shifted his knee aside and pressed his hand against the ground.  The branches sprang up and withered away; many were cracked and worn at the edges from her efforts.  Sakura sat up, rubbing her arms and running a thread of cool chakra through her sore back, letting out a relieved sigh as her pain eased.  She eyed Madara mistrustfully, stretching out her arms, her elbows and knuckles cracking in the silence between them.  She shifted so she was standing in a defensive stance at a larger distance from Madara; he quirked a brow at her as he remained where he was, relaxed where he sat on the ground.</p>
<p>She glanced over at his shadow clone.  He stood with folded arms and an imperious expression.  She felt doubly on edge with not just one but two of her greatest enemy here, their full attention upon her, and she looked back at the original Madara with open contempt.  “What do you want?” she demanded, wanting to get on with whatever he wanted to talk about.</p>
<p>There was a slight line near the corner of Madara’s mouth; he got to his feet, black hair shifting around his shoulders as he stood and folded his arms, matching his nearby clone.  Sakura stepped back, her hands gripping into fists, but he remained where he stood as he spoke.  “Why did you save my life?”</p>
<p>Sakura frowned; she hadn’t expected that question.  He elaborated before she could answer.  “I don’t understand what benefit you thought you would reap when you prevented me from dying.  Your actions were traitorous to your own side.”</p>
<p>“I wasn’t seeking benefits,” Sakura hissed, her fists clenching hard enough that her nails pricked into her palms.  “What, do you think that I did that just for some selfish motivation?”  She stepped toward him and then paused, forcing herself to breathe slower and more carefully control her anger.  Seemingly unaffected by her open hostility, Madara watched her unblinkingly, remaining relaxed where he stood.  </p>
<p>By the persisting quizzical glint in his heavy stare, Sakura knew he genuinely wanted to know why she had saved his life.  It was possible that his curiosity about it was truly his sole reason for keeping her out of the Infinite Tsukuyomi this long.  Sakura exhaled slowly, searching his impassive face as she recalled saving his life.</p>
<p>She already knew her answer.  It reverberated through her, and though she hated that she had saved Madara from death, she knew it had been the right thing to do; though it clashed against her terrible guilt and grief, it remained firm within her soul that she could not have stood by and watched him slowly die.  The images of his twitching, broken body lying there on the rocks still haunted the dark background of her mind, along with the many other moments of her life in which she had fought fiercely against death for the sake of another and won.  It was her nature to heal and to protect life, no matter whose it was.</p>
<p>Madara was silently awaiting her answer still, and Sakura clenched a fist over her aching heart.  “It was just… empathy.”</p>
<p>Sakura turned her face from him, unwilling and unable to look at him as she decided to express her truth.  “I don’t know what you understand of empathy, considering all that you have done.  You probably have no idea what the word even means.”  Her bitterness made her features tighten, her words slipping out from her tightly gritted teeth.  “...but that was it.  Not some grand plan or other backwards motive like you seem to expect.  As a medic, as a human, I couldn’t just… watch you suffer.  You or anyone else - enemy or comrade.”  She turned her head, meeting Madara’s eyes again as she looked back at him with a cold finality.  “I don’t know what you assumed of me, but I’m sorry to disappoint.”</p>
<p>“Hn.”  Madara inclined his head slightly as Sakura finished, and he was silent for a long moment as his dark eye was obscured by a falling black lock of his long hair.  She stood and stared at him as she awaited his reply; she was trembling slightly, her adrenaline from admitting such a truth making her feel exposed.  It couldn’t hurt anything for her to have admitted why she had saved his life, but she felt vulnerable anyway, and the longer the silence stretched on between them, the more anxious and frustrated she felt.  </p>
<p>Sakura tried not to think about what he would do now that his curiosity was satisfied; she wondered if she was about to be killed or thrown into the Infinite Tsukuyomi.  She tensed instinctively, refreshing her defensive stance where she stood as she prepared for a fight.</p>
<p>Finally he lifted his dark head of hair, getting to his feet.  Madara’s expression remained cool and unbreakable, impassive as he returned his gaze to her.  “It seems I owe you a debt for saving my life,” he rumbled, stepping toward Sakura, and she inhaled sharply as she stepped backward in response.  She searched his unreadable expression as he went on, stopping a pace away from her.  “I am offering you a choice as settlement of that debt.”</p>
<p>A frown darkened Sakura’s face; her heart pounded against her chest like a trapped and frightened animal.  She forced herself to hold her ground, ignoring the instincts to back away from him and create as much distance as possible; she held up her courage as she stood tall.  Madara lifted an open gloved palm in the space between them with his dark eye ever-intense upon her.  “You may join your teammates and other loved ones in the Infinite Tsukuyomi, living in your ideal world and being at peace.  Or,” he said, lifting his other palm, “you can remain here and watch over them with me.”</p>
<p>Sakura could only stare at him for the longest moment, her face paling and eyes widening as she took in his words.  Her gaze flicked from Madara’s shadowed gaze to his open palms, and she stared at his hands as they fell to his sides.  Shock and fury rose and entwined in her expression.</p>
<p>She clenched her teeth, regaining control of her astonishment as her anger spiked.  “How dare you insult me in such a way,” Sakura spat, standing up to Madara as the faces of her friends rose up in her mind.  “Is that really what you think is the right way to repay me?  I didn’t save your life to try and be your follower.  I also didn’t do it to try and incur some sort of debt with you.”  Madara’s dark eyes narrowed as Sakura stepped toward him, her rage blazing.  “And I don’t know what makes you think I’d willingly stay around you.  You hurt and likely killed my team.  You started this war.  You trapped everyone else I love in a life-sucking genjutsu.  I could spend the rest of my life listing all the reasons why I want nothing to do with you.”</p>
<p>Madara frowned; his fingers tapped on his arm idly, and Sakura cut in before he could reply.  “There’s a different way you can settle that debt with me - the right way.”  She pointed out toward the branches that surrounded and extended out from the vast God Tree stump they stood on, green eyes fierce as she stared up at him.  “You can release the Infinite Tsukuyomi.”</p>
<p>Madara scoffed at her.  “I gave you your options.  You may choose from those and only those.”</p>
<p>“There is nothing else I want than for this terrible genjutsu to be lifted!  I just want my friends and family, my people, to be freed.  I could give a damn about your offer, Uchiha Madara.”  She dared to step closer, raising a tightly clenched fist, and Madara’s visible dark eye widened at Sakura as she defied him.  “Release them all.  If you say we have a debt, then lift this curse.”</p>
<p>He shook his head, looking mildly pained like he was dealing with an insubordinate child.  “Foolish woman.  You should be grateful that I even gave you a choice.”</p>
<p>Madara turned a deadly dark eye to Sakura then, and she instinctively withdrew slightly, though her ferocity remained.  “What, will you kill me if I defy you?”  Her tone was incredulous, her stare searching, and he loomed over her as his tone deepened.  “Choose.”</p>
<p>“Never,” she hissed.  “I would never join you.  What would that even mean?”  She took another small step back as Madara leaned in; she tensed in preparation to fight as she spoke tersely.  “I will never willingly submit to the Infinite Tsukuyomi, just as I would never willingly submit to you.  I would rather die.”</p>
<p>Madara’s frown became a scowl, and he moved toward her.  Sakura lifted her arms defensively, flaring her chakra into her upper body in preparation to dodge a strike, and there was a twist about Madara’s mouth.  “Killing you is such a waste.”  He reached toward her, and she danced out of his reach, her adrenaline spiking as she realized the time had come to fight him.  His rumble was ominous as he went on.  “But I suppose if it’s what you’re choosing…”</p>
<p>
  <em>Who will save them if I’m dead?</em>
</p>
<p>The thought made Sakura freeze where she stood several paces ahead of Madara, her eyes widening upon him as he approached with a regretful twist about his lips.  The faces of her teammates and friends, especially those of Sasuke and Naruto, appeared before her mind’s eye.  Their visages cleared her mind of her rage, reminding her of what was at stake if Madara killed her here and now.  The image of him turning from her corpse thundered through her head: he would be the last one standing, the only waking person left, watching over the countless cocoons in his terrible and bloody victory as the world slowly died in their entrapping dreams.  Sakura would rot away, her chance to somehow stop him ruined and gone.</p>
<p>
  <em>If I die, it’s truly over.</em>
</p>
<p>She let go of her fists slightly, standing up taller where she had been poised defensively, and she blinked at Madara’s approaching dark figure as she realized she could not die here.  She was beginning to see that the fate of the world rested upon her shoulders now: she was the last chance for all who dreamed to live and wake again, and their fates rested upon what she did now.</p>
<p>Madara had not missed the change in her body language, and he paused in his approach, remaining expressionless but for the glint in his dark eye.  Sakura clenched her teeth.  <em>I won’t be his follower, but if I defy him and fight, he’ll easily kill me.</em>  Sakura’s body ached with her exhaustion and pain; even if she weren’t in such a condition she would have little to no chance on her own against him.  Her features tightened with her agonizing inner conflict - out of pride and fierce loyalty to her side, she could not surrender into taking his offer to join him, but she couldn’t see what other choice she had.</p>
<p>Her eyes flicked to the smudge of red on Madara’s cheek where he had wiped away his bloody tear earlier.  She inhaled slowly as her mind lit aglow with the idea that would save her life.  </p>
<p>Madara had stopped in front of her, and just as he was about to reach out and take hold of her neck, Sakura lifted her palms in a halting gesture with quick words and a shake of her head.  “Wait.”</p>
<p>He stopped, his gloved hand stilled in the air between them; his curiosity emerged again in his visible eye as his slender black brow raised.  “Hmm?”</p>
<p>Sakura forced her shoulders to untense slightly as she let out a long breath.  Fearless ferocity glittered in her eyes as she unclenched her teeth and drew in her courage, meeting Madara’s intense stare.  <em>For Team Seven.  For everyone.  I can do this.</em>  “I have a counteroffer.”</p>
<p>Her eyes flicked down to Madara’s outstretched hand; he narrowed his dark eye at her as his hand slowly fell back, and she knew by the impatience hinting in his otherwise calm expression that he was ready to finish dealing with her and move on to whatever else he had planned.  This was her last chance, and they both knew that he didn’t need to spell that out for it to be clear.  Sakura forced herself to stand tall and confident as she gave Madara a steely, calculating look.  “My first demand is that you treat me as your equal.”</p>
<p>Madara laughed, a short and biting bark that made Sakura flinch.  “What makes you think you’re in a position to make demands?”  He loomed over her with a half-amused, half-annoyed glare.  “Certainly you can see you do not have any power or control in this situation.”</p>
<p>Sakura made a small, tight smile as she looked up at Madara.  “But I do.”</p>
<p>Madara raised both eyebrows at her, and she lifted a finger to point at the smudge of dried blood on his cheek.  “I saw Obito as well as Sasuke and Kakashi over the years.  Those Uchiha eyes… they’re powerful, but I’ve seen how much strain they cause from every single use.”  She moved to point at Madara’s distant shadow clone as he watched her with a narrowed stare.  “Even the rapid-regeneration cells you have from Lord First can’t heal something as complex as your Rinnegans.  Even through the shadow clone they’re causing you pain and are severely damaged, which is something you cannot fix yourself.”  She lowered her hand.  “Eventually, you will go blind in both of your eyes from their overuse.”  She narrowed her green gaze at his obsidian one.  “Is that something you want?  Ending up blind and alone in a dead world?”</p>
<p>Madara was silent as Sakura withdrew, taking in a breath; she could smell the blood on him as well as a distinct smoky scent, and she exhaled as her heart beat hard in her chest, letting her words hang in the air a moment before she continued.  “But… with me around, you wouldn’t.  I am one of the best damn medics there are and I can fix that strain.  I can prevent you from going blind.”  </p>
<p>Offering Madara any help at all left a sour taste in Sakura’s mouth, but she pushed on, knowing that working out some sort of deal was her only option left in order to save herself as well as everyone else.  This was her only leverage, and she dared to hope that it would be enough to make her able to save a fraction of her pride and bend his offer into her favor.</p>
<p>Madara’s arms folded again; he regarded her with his usual imperious exterior, but she could see that her words had slipped into the dark of his eyes and were warring with his thoughts.  She spoke again, feeling bolder.  “That’s the power I have here,” she went on, “that’s why you have to listen to me.  Because you need my help, just as I need --” Sakura forced out the words, wincing at the admittance, “-- I need your help in staying free from the Infinite Tsukuyomi.”  She gave Madara a steady, confident glare.  “So that is my counter offer, since you refused my other request.  Treat me as an equal, keep me out of the Infinite Tsukuyomi - and I’ll keep you from going blind.”</p>
<p>Madara’s responding rumble was low and foreboding as he leaned toward her.  “I don’t need you to tell me how Uchiha eyes work.”</p>
<p>Sakura stared back up at Madara, her pulse hammering, wondering if her bold argument wouldn’t save her after all -- but she refused to show fear as she awaited his answer.  This was her last chance, her last leverage before the dreaded final living alternative of joining him as a follower, which she hated the idea of almost more than dying.  </p>
<p>Madara folded his arms, and his formerly foreboding aura melted away as he relaxed.  “Fine.  We can discuss it.” </p>
<p>Sakura reigned in her shocked expression, her sweaty clenched fists tightening and then untensing as she processed the words that had just left his lips.  <em>He accepted.  He accepted?</em></p>
<p>A smirk pulled at the corner of Madara’s mouth as he took in Sakura’s open relief and astonishment.  “You should have said that you were accepting my second option much sooner and saved yourself the stress.”</p>
<p>Sakura’s features tensed again; she gave him a withering look.  “I’m not taking your offer - I made my own.  I’m only staying near you conditionally.”</p>
<p>Madara let out a brief sigh as he turned from her.  “We’ll discuss the details later.  For now, we have an agreement.”  He stretched out his arms, beginning to walk away from Sakura; she huffed angrily through her flaring nostrils.  “This subject isn’t over,” she called after him, “and I’m still going to be treated equally and fairly, do you hear me?  We are not allies!”</p>
<p>He gave a small wave with a hand as he went, and the distant shadow clone of him moved to follow as well.  Regardless of her annoyance with the details having not yet been solidified, Sakura felt both relief and a firm resolve flowing slow and deep through her veins as she was no longer in danger of losing her life - and by extent, everyone else’s.  She allowed herself a single moment of gratitude that she had been able to divert the situation somewhat in her favor, and she let out a long exhale as she took this moment to breathe before she caught up with Madara.</p>
<p><em>My bluff actually worked, and I’ve successfully bought both myself and everyone else some time at least: precious time that I can use to find a way to release the Infinite Tsukuyomi.</em>  Sakura felt her heart pounding again as she moved forward with slow steps in the direction Madara was going, determination giving her courage as she watched his midnight mane drift with the red breeze.  <em>Sasuke, Naruto, Kakashi.  I’m going to save you all.</em></p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>3/3/21 Update - I am still working on all of my ao3 works, including this one.  My life has been madness with a lot of huge changes, and I've been writing in-between the storms.  Thank you to everyone who has left kudos/comments/bookmarks/subscriptions.  It makes me happy in a time where those little moments of joy really help.  Thank you to all of you have supported this work and left kind words; each one is a reminder and inspiration for me to return and give this my all again.  Expect updates, reworks, and new chapters in the future months as my life calms down and improves!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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